Villain
by Sleepzombie
Summary: Sarah left the Labyrinth a Hero. Or so she thought.


"_Everything that you wanted I have done."_

The Labyrinth was a complicated place, and so was its King. Sarah had left the Labyrinth content that she had devastated the King, beaten the Labyrinth, and left the Hero. She was wrong.

Jareth held little emotion to the girl either way. She'd won, she was not the first who had done so, she would not be the last. The Labyrinth had decided that she'd deserved her brother back, that she had learned from her mistake. And so she had won.

"_I wish the Goblins would come and take you away . . . right now."_

Jareth had seen many scenarios, many imaginations, he had been kind and gentle, for those who did care, but, for one reason or another, knew the child would be better off far away. Other times he had been cruel, evil, but he was always firm about his thirteen hours. Sarah's thoughts on him had been mischievous and thoughtlessly sensual. That was how she had pictured him, and so that was how he portrayed himself. Playing the part, because that was what he _did_.

"_I didn't mean it."_

Sarah was Toby's guardian, or she had been, in all the ways that had mattered, or she wouldn't have been able to wish him away. And even if she didn't _think_ she'd meant the words, she had, or they would have held no power, and Jareth would not have come to take the child away.

"_It's a crystal, __nothing more, but if you turn it this way and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this isn't a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby. Do you want it? Then forget the baby."_

The Goblin King had offered Sarah the crystal with her dreams, because she thought her little book held all the answers. He'd offered her, her dreams because she _thought_ he would, to tempt her away from the baby, and so he did. Sarah was in control of this adventure, because it was _her_ challenge, and so, for this thirteen hour period it was _her_ Labyrinth, _her_ Goblin King.

"_You have thirteen hours before your baby brother becomes one of us, forever. Such a pity."_

The Labyrinth had many uses, a haven, a prison, a test, and a teacher. Sarah had needed someone to show her just how precious her younger brother was, teach her what and where she was going wrong. And so that was what the Labyrinth, and Jareth by extension, had done. He'd told her he would have turned the boy into a goblin if she didn't reach him, because that was the motivation she'd needed. No matter it was a lie, that was what Sarah had _wanted _to hear, _needed_ to hear, what she thought she _would_ hear. And so that was what the Goblin King had said.

"_Now would you go left, or right?"_

"_They both look the same."_

As for how the maze had presented Itself to her, its own magic, its own consciousness had made that decision. It had made it much easier on Sarah that It did for most, because she had been thankful for what the Goblin King had done for her, she understood his sacrifice, if only vaguely, and acknowledged her own mistake. It allowed others close to her, to help her, and changed very little, so much less than It usually did.

"_And you, Sarah. How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?"_

It was one of few times that the Labyrinth and Jareth had disagreed, the Labyrinth was willing to give Toby back, Jareth was not. And so, he'd taken three hours of her time, because she had given him an opening. She'd told him the Labyrinth was a "piece of cake" and so had implied the wish for a greater challenge. And he had given it.

"_And, Hoggle, if she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a Prince."_

Her vision of him was cruel, a cheat, and so he'd sent the cleaners, and threatened Hoggle. Because he felt that Sarah had not yet learned her lesson, no, because he was not acting as he _himself _would, but as she _thought_ he would. He was still trapped in her illusions, and so she had not learned. Or he would have been acting as _Jareth_, not as the Goblin King.

"_But what no one knew was that the Goblin King had fallen in love with the girl, and gave her certain powers."_

Sarah had imagined that the Goblin King was in love with the girl, and so he had sent her the peach, and he had looked into the crystal, watching as she interacted with the dreams he had created for her. Watching how she thought he would have acted in that situation, though it was all a lie. Sarah's view of the Goblin King was similar to Jareth's own personality, but she was wrong in key places.

"_I am exhausted of living up to your expectations of me."_

Jareth had met her in the Escher Room, and had offered Sarah her dreams again, exasperated at her quotations, they meant nothing to him. She had given him only one chance to show her that she was wrong about him. _One_ sentence, one that was ignored. He was _playing_ the Goblin King, and she had created him. And he was tired of living up to her expectations. Hers were more difficult than most, almost impossible, she'd created the tragic Villain from her story book.

"_Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."_

She had refused her own dreams, and she had refused his offer to stay in the Labyrinth as one of his subjects. She had thought he was offering his heart, but he hadn't been, subjects loved their King, and Kings were slaves to their subjects. Jareth had never loved the girl, despite her delusions.

Sarah had said the words, and while they meant nothing to Jareth, they meant something to the Goblin King that she had _created_, and they meant something to _her_. And so he let her go, because she had won against herself.

"_You have no power over me."_

She'd come to the unconscious realization that Jareth had _never_ had any power over her. No, _she_ had always had power over _him_. Because that was the way of the Labyrinth. And so Sarah had been sent home, and Jareth had been free to return to being _Jareth_ instead of the Goblin King. He had returned to being a proper King who took care of his people, and his Kingdom as Sarah's Goblin King never had.

He barely remembered Sarah; he was busy with his duties, and with his Labyrinth, with the Goblins, and with the Foundlings. Sarah was not special or peculiar or strange, she _was_, just as many other people _were_, they were part of his existence, but that was all.

Sarah had won against the Labyrinth, and herself, but she had refused her _dreams_, and so she had never gotten them. In the end she had barred herself from them, she had wanted him to offer, and she had refused. And after she realized what she had done, she _thought_ she would never be able to follow her dreams. So she didn't.

She never became an actress. She lost her childhood, and her life, she lost all the things that had ever been important to her. She became a librarian, in her same small town. She watched Toby grow and follow his dreams and leave her behind, she watched as her Father and Step-Mother took her place as Toby's care-giver, and as they fell further and further in love with each other.

She would never fall in love, and she would never marry, she would never again be passionate about anything she thought, or did, or said. Sarah was a shell of the person she'd been when she entered the Labyrinth, and it was all her own fault.

"_It's not fair!"_

"_You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is."_

The Labyrinth _wasn't_ fair. But then neither was her life, and Sarah had created both for herself. And she hated both as well, because they weren't _fair_.

_Nothing_ is fair it is what it _is_. People and places and things _exist_, they can't be changed or molded into what you _want_ them to be. Life is what you make _of_ it, not what you _make_ it. And Jareth had known it, but Sarah hadn't.

In the end Sarah had never learned her lesson.

But then, the Villains never do.


End file.
